Last One Standing
by powerfelicia
Summary: Julie Gallagher – an orphan that lived an ordinary life. Well, until something big, blue and alien showed up in the apartment above hers. Suddenly, she's traveling with the Doctor (who just saw Clara die) and searching for one of the most dangerous creatures that ever lived; the mind-controlling Roath.


**- Chapter one -**  
**Big and blue**

Julie Gallagher didn't have a middle name. She didn't have parents either, at least not the kind that cared. A few months old she'd been left under a tree in Hyde Park, with nothing but a blanket with her name and birthdate on it.

_Julie Gallagher_  
_6th November_

Well, they didn't know for sure that it was her birthdate, but it was all they had. The whole thing was very strange and seemed old fashioned, but they didn't have any choice but letting her grow up in foster care. Lots of other children thought her story was exciting and could become the reason of an adventure, but all Julie wanted was a real family to hug when nightmares scared her.

But she didn't get a family. Not for real. Her entire life, she'd swapped between homes and cares, without really finding a home. When she came of age the first thing she did was to buy a small apartment. A place she could call home. Her first home. Something that made her feel safer than she'd ever felt before.

She got a job in a book store in Notting Hill, not because of the movie – she didn't even like the movie – but because she liked books. And she liked Notting Hill.

Her life became something of a routine. She'd wake up, eat her breakfast on the tube, go to work, go home, fall asleep and then do it all over again. On weekends she'd mostly stay at home, just reading a book, and the days would pass in the blink of an eye. Her friends thought she should come out more often, just to enjoy being young and alive, but something told her that she would have time. It was weird when she started to think about it, but every time she felt stressed she just knew that she would have time. Lots of time.

Although, something she seemed to never have time for was getting a middle name. Her old blanket hadn't really told her what it was – if her parents now even had given her one – and everyone else had one. It was a stupid little thing, really, but she'd been left out on so many normal things that having a middle name would be a big deal for her – she'd just have to come up with one. How do you come up with a middle name? How do you chose a name that you're going to have to live with for your entire life? Of course she could change it again, but that would just ruin it.

So, she'd spent the last couple of years trying to come up with something she liked, but for every name she found, she also found something she didn't like about it.

Anne. _Too normal_. Fragancia. _Too odd_. Hanna-Louise. _Too long_. Ling. _Too... Asian_.

The years flew by and before she knew it, her 23d birthday had both come and gone. She was 23 and hadn't seen the world – but she didn't have to panic! Because she would have _lots of time_.

_How could she know that?_

She knew the answer; she couldn't. It was just a thought that had gotten stuck in her mind. Like flies in a web.

With an irritated sigh she continued to scrub the floor. If someone had told her that coffee was that hard to get off a rug, she wouldn't have danced around with the cup. But no one had told her, because who would? No one had ever been there to explain how the world worked. Not even with things as simple as coffee and rugs.

The door bell rang and she rose with a moan. She stretched her muscles briefly and opened the door.

"Hello!" A tall man gave her a great smile. "You haven't seen any Baracles around here, have you?"

"Any what, now?"

"Um. Uh. Yeah. Baracles?" The man looked a bit tired when she didn't understand what he meant. "They're big, blue, got these big and yellow eyes, looks rather _alien_..."

"Alien?" Julie repeated sarcastically. "What? Like cosplay?"

The only alien thing Julie really knew about was Star Wars, but she couldn't remember any big, blue characters... She could, however, remember a _little_ and _green_ one.

"Cosplay?" The man snorted and laughed shortly. Then his confidence faded, rather obviously. "What's cosplay?"

Julie frowned. "When you dress up as characters from TV-shows, movies, books, comics or whatever...?"

"You pretend to be someone you're not?"

"I..." Julie wrinkled her nose. "I guess so."

"That's stupid. Cosplay's stupid. I don't like cosplay."

Julie didn't know if he was serious or not, but she laughed anyway.

"Back to the question, have you seen any Baracles?" The man said firmly.

"So, if it's not cosplay... Then you're looking for real aliens?" Julie said slowly. "Like. Real, living aliens?"

"Yes." The man nodded quickly and seemed glad that she started to understand what he was talking about. "Baracles."

He was nuts. Or, this was some kind of joke. A really bad joke.

"What did you say they looked like again?" she asked and tried her best not to burst out into laughter. The smile that was starting to spread on her lips, was on the other hand nothing she could control. This man seemed really excited about the_ aliens _and it was something about the whole situation that made her wanna laugh. It was so stupid.

"Big, blue, yellow eyes, a long neck and..." He stopped and waved his hand in a brief movement. "Never mind, if you'd seen one you'd know." He turned around and began to walk down the stairs again.

Julie stood in the door and watched him as he and his old tweed disappeared out of sight. She shook her head, laughing, and was just about to close the door as she could hear a woman scream. It came from upstairs.

She ran up by taking three steps a time and found mrs Hannigan sit crouched in the corner with her hands covering her eyes.

"Hey!" Julie tried to comfort her by patting her on the shoulder. "Hey, what happened?" She'd never been good with this sort of stuff, since she'd never really had to do it.

Something breaking inside mrs Hannigans apartment made her jump high. The old woman was living by herself and didn't really use to have company.

The door was wide opened and the wood had been scratched by something that looked like an animal. Carefully, Julie touched the markings. Whatever had done it, was certainly not human.

She peeked into the apartment but couldn't see anything. As silent as she could, she took a step in.

"No!" Mrs Hannigan hissed. "Don't go in there, don't–..." Her voice broke as tears started to flood in her eyes.

"Hey, it's okay!" Julie whispered back and gave her the warmest smile she could. "I'm just going to check something."

She turned around again and tiptoed into the apartment. You could tell by the furniture that an old lady lived here. The dark, brownish colours just felt typical old lady.

She could hear a sound from the living room, and decided that's were she should go. As silent as possible, she walked on the tip of her toes and praying that the floor wouldn't creak. Luckily, it didn't.

As she reached the living room, she could see the shadow of something big.

_There are no bears in central London, there are no bears in central London,_ she repeated for herself as she peeked behind the wall. The sight made her jaw drop.

No. Way. In. Hell.

She did her best to not stop breathing, but it took great effort, because what was in the living room wasn't human. It probably wasn't even Earthly, no. It was big. It was blue. And even though it had it's back against her and she couldn't see it, she was pretty sure it had yellow eyes.

* * *

**A little short, perhaps, but it's just the start! :)**

**If you missed in the summary, this takes place shortly after the Doctor saw Clara die in the Victorian England, just that she didn't say her famous word _(Run you clever boy and remember). _She just died and didn't get reborn. She was an ordinary girl. Don't take me wrong – I really, really like Clara – but I needed a new character. :3**

**Also, I try my best but english is just a second language to me so there can be a lot of strange sentences. Hehe.**


End file.
